The Economic Incentives Towards Low-Income Communities in Malaysia

Economic incentive is a part of the government initiative to help the economic growth to society, especially among the low income communities. Malaysia as democratic country provided various types of incentives to improve the standard living of the community and at the same time obtained the trust from the peoples toward the government administrative. Thus, under 1Malaysia conceptual projects, the government launched more than 20 types of incentives for Malaysians. This study has been aimed to investigate the impact of economic incentives towards low-income communities and the importance of the economic incentives toward economic and social improvement. 1Malaysia People’s Aid or can be known as Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M), was the most well-known incentive among low-income peoples in Malaysia. They will receive money directly from the government as an additional income in a year. They will receive money directly from the government as an additional income in a year. The study area covers some of low-cost housing projects (PPR), this paper cover at low-cost housing projects (PPR) Kerinchi in Kuala Lumpur. In order to collect the perception about the impact of BR1M and other economic incentives toward low-income communities, PPR Kerinchi has been selected as the strategic area to distribute questionnaire and conduct an interview. Therefore, from 1560 residents at PPR Kerinchi, 160 residents have been selected as a representative to share their perception about the effective of 1Malaysia project which influenced their standard of living. Accordingly, the 73% of the recipients were satisfied with BR1M and their knowledge about the others 1Malaysia incentives were also good in certain categories. Meanwhile, 27% of other unsatisfied residents were not agree with the benefits of economic incentives because they need to spend more money due to the government introduced of Goods and Services Tax (GST). As a conclusion, the results obtained in this research show a positive impact of economic incentives for low-income people and might be beneficial for local authorities to improve the standard of 1Malaysia incentives for Malaysian prosperity. However, appropriate planning from the administration was needed to make sure all the benefits from incentives can be maximised and being enjoyed by all levels of the society, especially among low-income people.